Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-01-19
NEW YORK EVICTIONS.
TWENTY THOUSAND FAMILIES DIS
POSSESSED IN THE CITY IN 1886.
The Item of Rent Out of Proportion to
Poor Man. Income-what Becomes
of tho FamiIiesa-Justices As Peace
makers.

The Item of Rent Out of Proportion to
= Poor Mans Income-what Becomes
of tho FamiIies:-Justices as Peace
makers.
II the number of families in New York
which hire their rooms from month to
month be taken to he between $50 900 and
Ia, 1000, then over one-tenth of these fam
lilies have been turned out Of their homes
during the year. The records of the eleven
district courts prove it. Four district
courts alone will show that they have
issued some 10000 dispossess summonses,
each one Of which was a notice TO family
to pay up or go.
To say that there were some 90, 900 fam
lilies driven ont of their homes last year
carries only part of the meaning. The
average number of persons in those poor
families is greater than in rich or well-to-
do families. II is q fair estimate to say
that in those 10000 families there were
10000 men, women and children, most
Of whom were unable TO earn sufficient
living The item Of rent was a great one
with them, out Of proportion to what it is
TO a man with a moderate income. A
laborer earning 81 day, or sec a month,
has 20 pay from SO 80 TO $40 rent, or over
a third of his income, while working
man who gets So 30 a day will not pay
over Sls month rent. With a majority
of those 10000 families the rent was more
than they could bear and they succumbed.
The head of the family may have been
sick, on a spree or out of work. The
family could economize in food, fuel and
clothing. but they lived in the cheapest
tenements already and the rent forced
them out. 1t is a puzzle where they go.
UNDER THE LAW.
The dispossess proceedings in the courts
do not by any means give the full number
OF families who are forced from their
homes by various reasons. Under the law
the landlord must give notice TO their ten
ants first, and thousands of tenants, know
ing that to disregard the notice will only
bring forcible eviction, sell or cast away
their furniture, and wander out into the
city at once. On the money obtained
from the sale of their furniture they may
live while, and then nobody notices how
they are swallowed up.
OF course there is another side TO il a
few cases, and there are professional rent
evaderS, who take advas-ages of the tech
nicalities of the law, the leniency of the
justices to the poor and the multitude Of
worthy cases, 10 escape paying rent when
they could if they would When tenant
hires from month TO month he can hold
over for another month if not notified to
60 five days before the first day of the
next month. Otherwise he can hold on,
and if he rents by the year he can hold on
for another year. Or il he is behind in his
rent he can make the landlord prove
ownership, previous notice, specific con-
tract and violation of it before he can be
forcibly elected. 1t is not easy for the
landlord to do all this if the tenant chooses
TO fight.
Notwithstanding the general impression,
drunkenness and shiftlessness in themselves
are not the immediate cause Of many evic
tiOns. A mans drunkenness may cause
him to lose his place, and then, without
work, he has no income, but as long as he
works his wife usually manages to get
enough Of his pay to pay the rent. Lack
OF work and sickness or death in the family
are the main causes of falling behind in
the rent. The family get so far behind in
their rent that ii is next TO impossible &c
pay up, and they are evicted, sell all they
can of their furniture, and start over again
in a new neighborhood. IL the father gets
work then and is in good health he may
regain a home. IL he doesn't, his family
breaks up, and he may become tramp,
criminal or pauper.